British journal of community nursing
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Br J Community Nurs · Sep 2004
ReviewAcupressure for nausea and vomiting in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.
Practitioners working with patients undergoing chemotherapy regularly encourage them to use acupressure in the form of Sea Bands for the relief of treatment-related nausea and vomiting. This mini-review sets out to uncover and examine the evidence base for this recommendation. A mini systematic review was carried out to identify randomized controlled trials comparing the use of acupressure plus usual care with usual care alone. ⋯ The outcome was nausea or vomiting duration or intensity. Searches on Medline, Embase, AMED, the Cochrane Library, Cancerlit and Cinahl identified two randomized controlled trials involving 482 patients with compared acupressure to no intervention control. The results suggest that acupressure may decrease nausea among patients undergoing chemotherapy but further work is required before conclusively advising patients on the efficacy of acupressure in preventing and treating chemotherapy-induced nausea.
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Br J Community Nurs · Sep 2004
ReviewAcupressure for nausea and vomiting in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.
Practitioners working with patients undergoing chemotherapy regularly encourage them to use acupressure in the form of Sea Bands for the relief of treatment-related nausea and vomiting. This mini-review sets out to uncover and examine the evidence base for this recommendation. A mini systematic review was carried out to identify randomized controlled trials comparing the use of acupressure plus usual care with usual care alone. ⋯ The outcome was nausea or vomiting duration or intensity. Searches on Medline, Embase, AMED, the Cochrane Library, Cancerlit and Cinahl identified two randomized controlled trials involving 482 patients with compared acupressure to no intervention control. The results suggest that acupressure may decrease nausea among patients undergoing chemotherapy but further work is required before conclusively advising patients on the efficacy of acupressure in preventing and treating chemotherapy-induced nausea.
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Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) is a common disease that is likely to increase in prevalence as the population becomes steadily more obese. Although generally benign reflux can, if untreated, lead to severe complications. This article describes the symptoms and diagnosis of acid reflux and GORD, and reviews currently available treatments ranging from lifestyle modification to surgery.
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Br J Community Nurs · May 2004
ReviewThe effectiveness of pin site care for patients with external fixators.
The aim of this mini-review was to establish if cleaning, dressing and removing crusts from external fixator or skeletal pin sites affected the risk of infection. A systematic search was conducted using Cochrane, Medline, CINAHL and Embase databases. Inclusion criteria were orthopaedic patients with skeletal pins or external fixator devices applied to either upper or lower limbs. ⋯ The study included two treatment groups, one using 0.9% normal saline and one using 70% alcohol, and a control group which had no cleansing. While the control group had a more favourable outcome than the treatment groups, there is still insufficient evidence from this one study to recommend no cleansing. It is also important to note that the most frequently recommended solution for cleansing pin sites in UK protocols (0.9% normal saline) had the worst outcome, therefore its efficacy in this population may need to be challenged.
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Br J Community Nurs · Dec 2003
ReviewThe role of cranberry juice in the treatment of urinary tract infections.
There has long been an interest in the use of cranberry, usually as a juice, to prevent and treat urinary tract infections (UTI). This mini-review examined the evidence available using a simple search on an internet-based resource designed to make evidence readily available to practitioners in the South Eastern NHS regions of the UK. The resource, known as KA24, provides access to a range of databases and full text of journal articles. ⋯ One of the RCTs was available for full scrutiny and was appraised as a valid study. Both RCTs found that cranberry (as juice or capsule) significantly reduced the rate of UTI in sexually active women. There is evidence to support the use of cranberry to prevent UTI in some populations but none to support its use as a treatment.